An American Gold Rush
by Listenerofshadows
Summary: "California's got gold!" Alfred cried out. "Tons of it! You can literally pluck from the ground there!" "Vee! That's amazing, Mr. America!" Italy popped into the conversation. "And you're just letting anyone take the gold?" "Of course! Finders keepers, losers weepers as they say!"


A/N: Hello guys, this is just a fun little one-shot I wrote my own amusement. I tried experimenting mixing historical notes into the story similar to the Narrator's explanations after a scene in Hetalia. Warning this includes my version of California in the story so if you don't enjoy state OCs (which I don't blame you, some of them are cringe-worthy) then you may not want to continue forward. Thank you.

Update: Thank you for all the reviews. To the guest who corrected me on the date, thank you! It was a typo and I apologize for the inaccurate date. I'm actually a big history buff so I cringe as well to inaccuracies in Hetalia fics. I'm not sure what you meant about the Chinese, because I included a snippet of China in the Gold rush. I did do research for this fic and most sources say the Chinese, like the rest, came over because of the gold rush not manifest destiny (which was an US idea about expansion and I doubt the Chinese even heard of it before they came over) however I don't know everything and I mainly wrote this for fun so yes, it may not be entirely historically correct, especially in the speech patterns xD

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"Guys, guys, guess what?" America came rushing towards them with a wild grin on his face, waving his arms enthusiastically.

"What is it, America?" France cocked his head curiously.

"It's probably something idiotic as always." England grumbled, taking a sip of tea.

"California's got gold!" Alfred cried out. "Tons of it! You can literally pluck from the ground there!"

England spit out his tea all over France in surprise while France simply exclaimed something in French, undeterred by being soaked in tea.

"Is what you say is true, America?" Prussia asked the American, "That the awesome me could simply pick it up off the ground?"

"Of course! Why would I lie? Look at this gold nugget we found!"

"Vee! That's amazing, Mr. America!" Italy popped into the conversation. "And you're just letting anyone take the gold?"

"Of course! Finders keepers, losers weepers as they say!"

**1848 Gold was discovered in Northern California. Because the US recently acquired California it was uncertain of its status in the nation. Since there was no legal laws yet established in California, the gold was free for the taking. News of this discovery slowly spiraled around the world starting with the rest of America, Hawaii and Latin America in early 1849.**

"What's wrong?" Sonoma asked, the brown bear cub nuzzling Camilla's hand.

"I don't really know." The young child professed. "Big brother Alfred hasn't decided if we are to become a state or a territory. I-I don't even know what we are right now."

The Californian brown bear seemed to frown as he rested his head in Southern California's lap. "Do you feel sad because of that?"

"I—I guess. My people have no legal laws, just ones they had to make up and it changes all the time, I feel…restless. Like something's big going to happen but I don't know if it's good or not."

"Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!" Amber, Camilla's twin, shouted happily as she rushed into the Spanish ranch house with a gold nugget in her hand.

"What?!"

**In May of 1848, a man named James W. Marshall working for John Sutter, found gold in the American river. The two men tried to keep it quiet, but a storekeeper named Sam Brannan set off a frenzy when he paraded around San Francisco with a vial of gold screaming, "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!"**

"I tell you when I hit gold I will bring it back home and will receive far more than what I could get here, aru."

"Yes, yes that will be wonderful," Taiwan gave a small smile as she helped China with the panning for gold. "Teacher has been rambling on about gold for hours." She sighed to herself as she listen to China continue to express what he would do after striking gold.

"Hey-hey do you feel like someone's staring at us?" China abruptly asked in the midst of his speech.

Taiwan felt a sweat drop run down her head as she began to feel an ominous presence staring at her from behind. "No-no, why do you say that?" desk

"You're right! I'm probably just seeing things."

Two pairs of brown eyes watched from a bush.

"They look really weird," Camilla whispered to her sister, frowning.

"Camilla, don't say that! Even if they are, it's not nice to say things like that."

"I guess you're right," Camilla blushed. "Sorry."

"Aha! I knew I wasn't going crazy!" China appeared from behind, grabbing Amber.

"Aah! Don't touch me you weirdo!" Amber exclaimed.

**A notable group of immigrants came from China during the California Gold rush. Because of their distinctive difference of dress and appearance, the rest of the prospectors were weary of them.**

"Vee! What is a little girl like you doing here?"

The ten-year-old giggled, her brown eyes dancing with glee. "Hello there! I'm California Francis!"

The Italian grinned. "Ciao! I'm Italy Veneziano but everyone calls me Italy! I represent the northern half of Italy while my big brother Romano represents the southern half."

Amber gasped. "I, like, represent the northern half of my state just like you!"

"Really? Great! That's wonderful, we can be northern buddies!" Italy gave her a quick hug. "Do you have a brother who represents the southern half too?"

"No, but my twin hermana, California Angeles, represents the southern half! Even though we fight sometimes, me and my sister love each other a lot!"

"That's good!" Italy gave her an encouraging smile. "Ve, it must be a lot to handle, with all these people flocking to you so quickly! I don't know what I would do if I was you!"

"I do get headaches sometimes from all the new voices in my house," Amber admitted, frowning a bit. "Cities grow out of nowhere overnight! There are so many people of languages and cultures that I never knew about!"

"It's so good to see young kids like you growing up strong and so quickly! It took me so long to grow up, it was hard seeing others already young adults and I was just stuck as a little kid." Italy said, looking off in the distance.

"It's okay Mr. Italy," Amber said, sensing his distress, "Everyone grows up at different paces. My big hermano, Texas, he was big long before me and my sister or the rest of the family. In fact, not long ago it seemed we would never get any bigger.

"So me and my sister decided to be become our own country and declared independence from big brother Mexico. But we were so scared and didn't know what to do and then America came and said he would take good care of us. He's our new big brother! I think Angeles likes him a lot better than Mexico too!" She ended, beaming.

"Ve! That's so cool!" Italy said, smiling dreamily. "I wish I had someone strong and brave who would look out for me like you two have!"

**Many European Immigrants (Mainly French with Italians, Germans and Britons being the next largest ethnic groups) came searching for Gold. Because of the longer distance to travel, they arrived in late 1849.**

**Also! On June 14th 1846, the "California Republic" declared independence from Mexico, having overthrew the Mexican governor in charge of the territory. It only lasted a few weeks until what remained of the government ceased to exist when the U.S raised its flag over the city of Sonoma and henceforth occupied the city.**

A/N: Alright so that last bit with Italy and Amber wasn't exactly historical, but I just wanted to write him interacting with her. It's interesting that a lot of people tend to forget he's existed just as long as France, Spain and the others but remained a little kid for most of it. Goes to show that a nation's physical age isn't necessarily have to do with how long their people have been around. Yes I have two personifications for Northern and Southern Calfornia, I've spent a lotta time researching history on Calfornia before I decided this. Historically, even back to the time Mexico owned Calfornia, these two disagreed with one another! SoCal even got really close to seceding from NorCal and becoming its own state! However that idea kinda got loss in the aftermath of the Southern States seceding from the Union and y'know started the whole War between the States xD Poor Camilla, you tried, bby, you tried ;-; also the 2nd reason I gave Calfornia two personifications is because of the many sterotypes of Calfornia and people wanting a "smarter" California because of Silicon Valley and all that. Because Silicon Valley and hipsters are NorCal and Hollywood and surfers are SoCal, (total sterotypes people please no real Californians take offense here xD) I decided that it needed to be two personifications xD not to say my head cannon of Camilla is that she's dumb, just tends to be more shallow and act blonder than her sister does.


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